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Sprint relay team finishes 7th in Finland

SPRINTERS FLASHBACK
Timothy Frederick of Simplex, centre, speeds to gold in the Boys Under-20 100m final in 10.40 seconds ahead of Kion Benjamin, left, of Memphis Pioneers 10.49 seconds and Ako Hislop of Kaizen Panthers who clocked 10.55 seconds on Saturday, the first day of the 2018 Hampton International Games at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo. All three recorded personal best times.
(Photo courtesy:CLAYTON CLARKE/Sportscore)

The Men's 4x100 metres team was T&T's last hope for a medal at the IAAF World Under-20 Championships but the local quartet crossed in a disappointing seventh place in yesterday's final at the Ratina Stadium in Tampere, Finland.

Running in the order of Kion Benjamin, Carlon Hosten, Timothy Frederick and Tyrell Edwards, the national relay team clocked 39.87 seconds in a race which they had the quickest reaction time of 0.143

However, they faded and it was the American team of Eric Harrison, Anthony Schwartz, Austin Kratz and Micah Williams, winning gold the first of the Championships for the USA, with a world-leading U-20 time of 38.88.

Copping silver was Jamaica, improving its national U-20 record to 38.96 while Germany (39.22) replicated its bronze medal-winning performance from 2016 in Poland, after edging Japan (39.23) on the line.

The final day of the youth track and field meet will take place today but there will be no T&T athletes competing. The 14-member team will be a disappointed bunch

Though a disappointing day for the local team, T&T's Ato Boldon did have something to celebrate with his athlete, Jamaica's Briana Williams, completing the sprint double. Yesterday, she broke the Games record to nab gold in the women's 200m.

Racing in lane three, Williams took a marginal lead on USA’s Lauren Rain Williams as they entered the straight. She then extended her lead in the second half of the race and crossed the line in a championship record of 22.50. Rain was a distant second in 23.09 and Poland’s Martyna Kotwila bagged bronze in a personal best of 23.21.

On Tuesday, the 16-year-old Jamaican sprinter won the women's 100m in 11.16. Coincidentally, Boldon was the first athlete to complete this feat, winning the first ever double sprint title in World Junior Championship history. T&T's most successful athlete won the 100m and 200m titles in Seoul, South Korea back in 1992.

At the previous U-20 Championships two years ago, T&T's Khalifa St Fort also coached by Boldon placed third in the women’s 100m, winning T&T's lone medal of the Championships.

Today is the final day of the biennial youth meet, however, no T&T athlete from the 14-member team, will be in action.